About:
A collaborative installation by me and artist Ezra Benus. Heating pads are arranged on a shared table with seating. The heating pads’ custom covers are printed with tangled cords, meal-time tools, and a poem by Ezra. They are accompanied by a projected transcription of an audio conversation between us about pain and warmth. There are additional places to recline around the periphery of the room and a collaborative-quilt.

The poem text (which reoccurs throughout the installation) is:
To tangle, untangle, detangle, angle it just right. Embracing the warmth, a hugged hip, a throbbing declaration. Joined together forever. And the idea of four heating pads sounds like a dinner party. Meals prepped, served steaming, a comfort wafts over (in the ways only the safety of warmth can). Here we have heating pads, outlets in the ground, walls ceilings plug in to slowness. Pillows form to us, to our shifts — pain maneuvers the body in the most surprising ways. Toss, turn, place pressure on. Wanting to exit the body to feel the pull out of pain. But pain is both in & out. A trend, predictable and cyclical. When new pain sprouts it's suddenly everywhere encompassing our everyday.

Comissioned as part of Towards a Warm Embrace at Perlman Teaching Museum, Carleton College

Year: 2024

Size: Dimensions variable

Materials: heating pads with custom covers, cyanotype tablecloth, projected transcription, 20-minute looped audio installation, tables, chairs, cushions

Curated by: Sara Cluggish

Photos by: Eric Mueller